Eurostat: In 2024, about 33.8% of Bulgaria’s electricity came from renewables

In 2024, about 33.8 per cent of Bulgaria’s electricity came from renewable energy sources, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said on January 14.

This was up from 29.7 per cent in 2023 and 18.6 per cent in 2014, according to Eurostat.

In 2024, renewable energy sources accounted for 47.5 per cent of gross electricity consumption in the EU, indicating a 2.1 percentage points (pp) increase from 2023. It has almost tripled (+30 pp) since the time series began in 2004.

The share stood at 15.9 per cent in 2004, increased to 28.6 per cent in 2014 and jumped to 47.5 per cent in 2024.

Wind (38 per cent of the total) and hydro power (26.4 per cent) accounted for almost two-thirds of the total electricity generated from renewables in the EU.

Solar power followed, contributing 23.4 per cent, while solid biofuels and other renewable sources accounted for 5.8 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively. Solar power is the fastest-growing source: in 2008, it accounted for only one per cent, showing a robust increase from just 7.4 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2008 to 304 TWh in 2024.

More than 75 per cent of electricity consumed in 2024 was generated from renewable sources in Austria (90.1 per cent, mostly hydro), Sweden (88.1 per cent, mostly hydro and wind) and Denmark (79.7 per cent, mostly wind).

Shares above 50 per cent were also registered in Portugal (65.8 per cent), Spain (59.7 per cent), Croatia (58.0 per cent), Latvia (55.5 per cent), Finland (54.3 per cent), Germany (54.1 per cent), Greece (51.2 per cent) and the Netherlands (50.5 per cent).

At the other end of the scale, the share of electricity from renewables was less than 25 per cent in Malta (10.7 per cent), Czechia (17.9 per cent), Luxembourg (20.5 per cent), Hungary and Cyprus (both 24.1 per cent) and Slovakia (24.9 per cent).